VENICE—The Biennale, Stranieri ovunque, is a mirror this year. “You judge, you gossip, you wash it all down with Prosecco. Have you seen the Uzbekistan pavilion? Can you get me into the Tate reception? Do you have a boat? Do you know who I am?” writes Jason Farago in the New York Times.
Pedrosa sees the theme as relating to the idea that “wherever you are, wherever you go, there are always foreigners around you, but also on the other hand that you are always a foreigner yourself in a way.” He sees the theme as “quite political, but it’s also quite poetic” and having “many different levels.”
Pedrosa sees the theme as particularly relevant in Italy and the Mediterranean region due to the ongoing migration crisis. He has wanted to do an exhibition with this theme in Italy for about 10 years.
Adding to definitions of marginalized communities like Indigenous peoples this year are self-taught artists and artists from diverse backgrounds. This includes works by artists with complex backgrounds, such as Aloïse Corbaz, who was confined to a psychiatric institution.
Corbaz’s works feature a variety of sensuous figurative forms, hieratic couples with blue-swathed eyes, and a diversity of other scenes and characters such as popes, vehicles, plants, and animals.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1918, she remained until her death in 1964. Her work was championed by art critics like Jean Debuffet, who speculated that she was not truly “mad” but instead discovered a means to assert her identity and craft her extraordinary artistic vision within her “madness”.
The US Pavilion at the 2024 Venice Art Biennale presented a very colorful display by artist Jeffrey Gibson, known for his hybrid visual language that ‘combines American, Indigenous, and Queer histories’.
A final good find is The Peggy Guggenheim Collection’s Venice exhibition “Jean Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge,” a retrospective of posters from films like “La Belle et la Bête” and “Orphée,” and his “poésie plastique” (visual poetry) in drawings, paintings, and ceramics.
